Mook Ji Bar

Mook Ji Bar

406 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

+61 3 9600 2661

Remember to make reservation before going, at least for dinner because it is that popular.

 seafood stew - There are a lot of ingredients in it as you can see but I think the soup is kinda blend though. Opps.

chapjae

Kimchi pancake and a really hugeeeee one

 Fried chicken! The fried chicken is really good and you can add cheese with it. Benita told me that her friend made a comment " it is a life-changing experience eating chicken with cheese". So much LOLs! It is really good though. Sorry Gami but I like this one more.

ddeokbukki. So good. I didn't really know how to appreciate ddeokbukki till I went to Melbourne. I craved and learnt how to make good ddeokbukki and this is up to standard. Chewy and it goes well with the fishcake. I always cook with dodo sotong balls because yummy fishballs are hard to find in Melbourne and this is amazing hehe. Cleaned every bit of it.

Special thanks to my cell mates that I get to eat a Mook Ji Bar as part of my birthday celebration because I absolutely did not make reservation. They have a sign out there that they only accept people who made reservations and I did not :( Fortunately they made a reservation as part of my surprise dinner hehe.

ChangGo Korean BBQ

ChangGo Korean BBQ

70 Little La Trobe St Melbourne, VIC 3000   

0433 379 100

Opens at 5pm and be prepared to wait for at least an hour if you did not make a reservation.

 

**The have another outlet a Chinatown - little Bourke street if I am not wrong**  

Set for 2 - spent about AUD60 nett for all.

Includes : 8 flavours of pork belly together with seafood stew and side dishes.

Flavours are: Wine/ Original/ Ginseng/ Garlic / Herb/ Miso/ Curry / Hot

I guess it is midsem break and time to pamper ourselves with authentic and good korean food in town. I have heard a lot of raves about Chang Go from my friends and I finally get to visit this place with Vanessa. Time to destress with good food. If you are a first timer they will sort of help you out with bbq-ing of the first few slabs of pork belly.

I guess we were too hungry then so we finished everything in quite a short period of time. How can you not finish these juicy meat. Most of my friends find it unbelievable that I can eat so much sometimes hahahs. There's always stomach space for good food right?

The soup has really lots of great seafood like alaskan crab, prawns, sotong.

Love this so much and the portion is just nice for two. Remember to go from left to right when you barbeque otherwise you cannot fully appreciate those meats that are lightly marinated or should I say marination not to taxing on one's taste bud.

It is one sinful meal, pretty fattening so I prefer to let the fats sizzle a while longer so it gets crunchy and more flavourful. Oh I miss this so much!

P.S. Will be back for more soon!

Kim's Family Restaurant

Kim's Family Restaurant

#01-06, Kilat Court, 17 Lorong Kilat

 

Blessed 23rd birthday to my dear goofy friend Tesring :D

Since it is her birthday we let her choose where we shall have dinner and here you go - Kim's Family Restaurant. We ordered army stew, japjae, seafood miso soup and pork bulgogi which eventually cost about SGD76.50? Each bowl of plain rice cost SGD2 if you order ala-carte which is crazy expensive. I know I shouldn't compare prices between Singapore and Melbourne but things here in this restaurant and tiny country is expensive. Singapore cost of living is definitely rising at the speed of light. 

Kim's restaurant offers 12 different kinds of sides, not to sure if they are refillable but they are specially seasoned to suit the local taste buds - not very authentic in my opinion. They are either too salty of sweet with a lot of msg - felt really thirsty after eating and I need to down them with plenty of rice. For the record I drank about 3-4 glasses of water throughout the meal feeling thirstier than ever :( I must say they don't taste terrible though in that segment in fact pretty nice perhaps because of excessive seasoning.

Thumbs up for the Jap jae worth eating but it is SGD15 for a tiny plate. It is flavourful, chewy but stingy with vegetables in that dish. I like it that it tastes good and it is not oily compared to the others I had else where.

Army Stew SGD 35 for a tiny pot barely enough for two. The stew is not spicy at all compared to all the other stews I had. The soup is pretty diluted but acceptable because of the unique twist - cheddar cheese :B Those who are scared of spicy food may consider trying. I contains golden mushrooms, two dumplings, two mouthful of instant ramen, sausages, luncheon meat, rice cake, prawns, clams and few pieces of pork belly.

In general I feel that the dishes are not bad tasting but nothing fanciful to rave about. It is too expensive given the portion provided. The above is definitely not enough for three although it did much damages to our pockets leaving hungry afterwards :(

Managed to catch up with the girls and took some pictures. I certainly have tough luck with white-coloured clothes. I will, no matter what stain my clothes with food stains no matter how hard I try. I will topple my soup spoon over and yes it happened after dinner , ARGH!

More pictures below :)

Brighton Beach / Gami Chicken & Beer

Last week of spring and my cousin is here to pay me a visit in Melbourne :D

Time to pay Brighton beach a visit on this perfect sunny day. Check out the blue sea peeps.

check out the colourful bathhouses! 

AUD 5 for 3 huge and ripe mangoes :) 

chilled mangoes and anchovies salad - perfect snack for picnic by the beach.

My gosh the sun was scorching and really unbearable that day despite the breeze though, just saying ><

After sun tanning my tummy couldn't stop growling so I had to head back to the city quickly for dinner. Check out Gami below for my favourite fried chicken in Melbourne city.

Gami Chicken & Beer

100 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000

If you don't already know, Gami does delivery for people who lives in specific proximity with AUD3 delivery charge and minimum expenditure of AUD30? Have to check it out with my mates again but it is really convenient if you are planning to stay in and enjoy your meal :B

 sausages on hot plate

 half-half (whole chicken in 2 flavours) fried chicken : sweet chilli and original

No matter who many pieces I eat I won't get sick of eating unless I have those with the sweet soy sauce. Each piece of chicken fried to perfection. The crunch is something not to miss. Almost every one orders a whole chicken there. Remember to make a booking or visit early to avoid disappointment!

Tastes really good even if you leave it over night - especially the sweet chilli ones. All you have to do is to microwave for a min and half to heat them up. Missing them already :(

spicy seafood soup

you get bits of scallop, squid, prawns and glass noodles in the spicy soup. Trust me it is really spicy, perfect choice for dinner on a winter night.

Don't forget to get a mug of chilled beer to go down with your meals. Ultimate yum!

Kimchi Pancake

Kimchi Pancake

Desperate times calls for desperate measures.

As you know eating out in Melbourne CBD can be very expensive, especially when you do it for every single meal, soon you will be wondering why your pocket money is diminishing at an astonishing rate and not kidding!

Have been craving for good kimchi pancakes for the longest time so I have decided to check out on youtube to learn how to cook.

Recipe:

1/2 cup plain flour

1 cup kimchi, chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoon diced onions

1/4 cup water

3 tablespoon kimchi juice

Steps:

1. combine all the above ingredients and mix evenly.

2. add 4 tablespoons of oil on a heated pan and fry the kimchi pancake.

3. flip after 30 seconds and wait for another 30 seconds and ready to serve.

** frying duration may differ depending on the thickness of your kimchi pancake**

 I feel really blessed to be given the opportunity to study overseas because somehow, or eventually I just learn stuff that I might never back home. Studying overseas especially when you are living alone without a roomie, one needs to do everything on his/her own :( I feel I really aged a lot in just a few months.

Anyways enjoy the kimchi pancake! I made for my friends in cell and they love it teehee...

Kimchi fried rice

I can't emphasis more the pain of living alone. I hate having the same dish over and over again but I badly need to finish the box of Kimchi that I bought. Hence, I decided to be more creative and look up on youtube on how to make my next korean dish craving - Kimchi fried rice!

P.S. In case you were wondering which brand you should get, my personal favourite is 'Well-being Kimchi', I am serious that's the brand hahahas!

Kimchi Friedrice

In the original recipe I got, it was recommended to add in sesame oil and 2 tablespoons of hot chilli pepper paste. I know I won't be able to finish the hot chilli pepper paste before I return for summer holidays so I decided to tweak the recipe a little and it still tastes pretty delicious in my opinion hahas.

Ingredients:

1 cup of kimchi, chopped

3 tablespoons of kimchi juice

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 pkt of  Korean roasted salted seaweed

1/4 cup water

Steps:

1. stir fry the kimchi in the pan for about a min 

2. add rice, sugar, salt and water and continue to stir fry

3. tear up the seaweed and fold it into the kimchi fried rice ready to serve

Simple right? My favourite appliances here is my ricecooker teehee. The best thing I brought over apart from my pillows, bedsheets and teddy bear. 

When you are hungry, fried rice is always the best quick-fix, life of an international student ~

Wooga / Jiu Fen Tian Pin

What is the best way to celebrate end of a semester and beginning of SWOT Vacation?

GOOD FOOD! Yes, you saw that!

Apparently good food is our only source of motivation to give our best, bite the bullet and complete all our assignments. In case you are wondering what's so tough, we have been dapao-ing our groupmates work because they are sub-standard. Forgive my slang, it means redoing all the project on our own :'(

I really hate it when I get selfish groupmates - welcome to the world and face it, social loafers are EVERYWHERE literally...

Forget about those nonsense and focus on food foodies! :)

Wooga

270 Victoria St, North Melbourne VIC 3051 (Directly opposite Queen Victoria Market)

 side dishes

 BBQ pork belly

Spicy Kimchi and Pork Soup

The serving portion for the BBQ meat is really small 3 pieces of pork belly is 

 2 person's serving so you can gauge for yourself how much to order.

Korean food in Melbourne city tends to be a little bit more pricey so expect to spend almost AUD 20 per main or portion of meat.

Mains do not come with rice so you have to get it separately.

 Jiu Fen Tian Pin

You can find it along Swanston street  towards Bourke street (Chinatown)

warm grass jelly and soybean curd with pearls

We wanted to chill while planning our saturdate - brunch so here we are... It is kinda hard to find places with good traditional desserts here and yes, they are pricey. I am pretty sure I can get them less than half the price back home, but heck that - comfort food is priority :)

Check out next post for yummilicious brunch at Brunswick <3

Han Guuk Guan

Han Guuk Guan

13 Victoria St, Melbourne VIC 3000

It was supposed to be Tim's birthday celebration so the cell and our sister cell decided to gather at Han Guuk Guan for dinner celebration as our first choice Korean restaurant - Joomak was fully booked. Nevertheless I love the food there especially my fish roe spicy tofu hot pot <3

Good food always makes me happy :)

I think I spent about AUD23 that night despite sharing the dishes among 4 person. The hot pot comes with a bowl of rice in case you are wondering - those who love rice!

Thank you Lord for the good fellowship during cell and nourishing us with yummilicious dinner <3 

P.S. do note that every Monday is Korean night so there won't be chapchae, tung soo yuk, jajangmyun and etc. Also, the standard varies perhaps according to the mood of the chef on the day itself :(

fish roe spicy tofu hot pot DA BOMB!
Flavourful spicy fish roe soup, perfect to go down with a huge bowl of rice.
 There are plenty of people who do not appreciate fish roe because of the fishy stench, but the spices in the soup covered the odor perfectly.
Huge pot filled with silky tofu and plenty of mushrooms to keep your hungry bellies happy.
 

side-dishes are must-haves for every Korean meal.
Well seasoned dishes. Sour and spicy kimich to wake your palates up.

tung soo yuk (sweet and sour chicken)

Comfort food. Something very similar to the sweet and sour pork you get back in Singapore. Each piece of meat evenly tossed with the sweet and sour sauce, yet still remain cruchy.

Chapchae
One of my favourite as well. Onions and mushrooms to bring the crunch and taste. It just makes you want to have more. Unfortunately it is a tad too oily. Will need to flush it down with some soup or tap water before continuing with second helpings.

Tim's birthday cake from Brunetti.I feel that Brunetti is pretty much overrated. Terribly long queues for horrible tasting cakes is not my ideal. You can get cheaper and better tasting cakes elsewhere.